Abraham Klassen,
Dec 15, 1883 – Dec 30, 1973

Abraham Klassen was the fourth child of twelve. Eight of them reached aldulthood. Of these, he was the second eldest child, the eldest son. He shared very few recollections of his childhood but he remembered the fruit trees on their farm in the village of Gruenfeld, South Russia, possibly because he always enjoyed eating fruit.

When he was twenty-five years of age, in 1908, he married nineteen-year-old Anganetha Bergen. The day that Anganetha passed away, in the terrible flu epidemic of 1918, six young children were left without a mother. They ranged in age from one week to nine years of age. One-week-old Jake was left in the care of his maternal grandmother.

One year later, Abraham Klassen remarried. The new bride was none other than Anganetha's younger sister, Helena. The groom was thirty-five years old; the bride twenty-one. Baby Jake was brought back home and Helena began her new role as the children's 'second' mother. As time passed, Abraham and Helena went on to increase the family size by an additional seven children.

We are the descendants of these two unions.

(Further information in the Stories Section.)